Springfield Standard

Missouri State's volleyball team will travel to El Paso, Texas, to face UTEP in a two-match series at Memorial Gym. The matches are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. Central Time and Saturday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m. Central Time. Both matches will be available for viewing on ESPN+.

Missouri State enters the series with a record of 10-11 overall and 5-5 in Conference USA play, currently riding a five-match win streak. UTEP leads the conference with a 19-3 overall record and is 9-1 in league play.

Friday’s match marks a milestone for Missouri State head coach Steven McRoberts, who will coach his 1,000th college match. McRoberts is in his sixth season with Missouri State and has accumulated 667 career victories over his 29-year coaching career, ranking ninth among active Division I coaches. He has previous experience in Conference USA from his tenure at Tulsa between 2011 and 2013.

The Bears have demonstrated offensive consistency by hitting .213 or better in their last eight matches and have maintained a .304 attack efficiency during their current winning streak.

Missouri State’s roster features significant youth this season, with seven freshmen and six sophomores among its eighteen players. All seven Missouri natives on the team are from within seventy-five miles of the university campus.

Freshmen have contributed nearly half of the team's kills this year—47 percent—with Peyton McKee leading the squad at an average of just over three kills per set and earning CUSA Freshman of the Week honors earlier in September. Hannah Gardner has achieved two triple-doubles this season as a freshman, making her the only player in school history to do so as a first-year athlete; she was recognized as CUSA Freshman of the Week on October 20.

Defensively, Missouri State ranks third in Conference USA and sixty-ninth nationally with an average of 2.41 blocks per set. Lizanyela Lopez leads both categories individually within the conference, having recorded five or more blocks eleven times this season.

The Bears have also been strong defensively over recent years, finishing among the top thirty-two teams nationally for total digs four times since the start of the decade—including tenth place in 2020-21 and fourth place last season—and currently lead Conference USA with an average of nearly fifteen digs per set.

In serving statistics, Missouri State has consistently posted some of its best ace averages since adopting rally scoring to twenty-five points per set; under Coach McRoberts they have averaged at least 1.24 aces per set each year, including a current mark of 1.44 aces per set this season.

This year marks Missouri State’s first campaign as part of Conference USA after leaving the Missouri Valley Conference following thirty-three seasons where they held a .652 winning percentage during that period.

First-year assistant coach Lori Endicott-Vandersnick brings Olympic experience to the staff; she helped Team USA secure bronze at the Barcelona Games in 1992 and was named best setter at those Olympics.